In painting, refinishing, or otherwise treating surfaces proximate glass, paint or other liquids often spatter onto the glass and, once dry, can prove particularly troublesome to remove. It is conventional in such circumstances to utilize a planar blade to scrape the spatterings from the glass and a multiplicity of hand tools have long been available to facilitate retention and operative manipulation of the blade by a user.
One such hand scraper tool is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,291,514 of Warner et al. That scraper includes a hollow body within which a blade-carrying member is user-slidable to reciprocate the blade between a storage position within the handle and an operating position in which the cutting edge of the blade projects outward from the handle's open end. The movable member is of a three-finger cantilever design in which the outer fingers, and the central or middle finger, are spring biased in opposite directions for frictionally engaging opposite interior walls of the hollow handle. The free end of the middle finger extends through a slot in the handle for user access and operative manipulation in sliding the blade between its first and second positions. Widthwise extensions of the slot at its longitudinal ends cooperatively receive the middle finger to define the first and second positions of the blade and so lock the member against unintended positional slippage.
The Warner et al hand tool, however, is deficient in several respects that prevent full realization of its potential operating benefits. The three-finger cantilever design lacks substantial rigidity in that the central, operating finger is supported from only a single point. In addition, the movable member is in fact prone to unpredictable rearward slippage--when the tool is used in its normal manner for scraping--that results in jamming of the operating mechanism and possible injury to the user. Since the Warner et al tool provides the ability to change the blade while disposed in its operative position, there exists a further risk and danger of inadvertent disengagement of the blade from the tool in the course of normal use.
It is accordingly the desideratum of the invention to provide a hand scraper tool that overcomes the deficiencies of the prior art. More particularly, it is an object of the invention to provide a hand tool in which a scraper blade is selectively reciprocatable between, and positively securable in each of, an operating position and an interior storage position.
It is another object of the invention to provide such a hand tool in which inadvertent disengagement of the blade from the tool in the operating position of the blade is positively prevented.
It is a further object of the invention to provide such a hand tool wherein the movable blade-carrying member exhibits increased rigidity facilitating member movement between its various positions.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide such a hand tool in which the slidable member is movable to, and positively retained in, a third position for removal and/or insertion of a blade.
Other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed solely for purposes of illustration and not as a definition of the limits of the invention, for which reference should be made to the appended claims.